Tour of America's Dairyland race series

Tour of America's Dairyland or "TOAD" as the cool kids say.
The Trek Midwest Team will be out racing this great series. While all of the races are fun to watch, the last two seem get some of the biggest crowds. For Milwaukee spectators, Saturday June 25th on Downer Ave. is a good one to watch. For Madison viewers, the next day (June 26th) should be another fun one to watch as it is scheduled to race downtown around the state's capitol square.

Stop by to say "hi" and cheer the team on - It's going to be fun!

Tour of America's Dairyland (TOAD)

Masters Racing and Senior Moments

Hard to believe the WCA series is already winding down with only 7 races left - and it's only June! At least we still have a lot of other racing options during June and July, including the Tour of America's Dairyland and Superweek.

A couple recent race reports: Dale and I did the State road race championships 2 weeks ago, as it turns out the only road race on the schedule this year (at least it has a hill!). We had a pretty good size field in the 40+ (about 50 guys), with Enzo's-PSIMET team being the largest team with 4 guys and then several other teams with 2 guys (including our very own Trek Midwest Team). Unfortunately, two guys got away early (one from Enzo and one from ISCorp) and that was all she wrote. Dale and I were pretty much the only ones who came to race (other than the two up the road!), everyone else was content to ride around for two hours and wait for the sprint, only making efforts to chase down any efforts to bridge or attack and make it a race that were initiated by Dale and I. Why do guys show up to race if they are not going to race - after all, it is a bike RACE is it not???

This past weekend, Greg, Dale, and I headed to the Tour of Galena, a two day, three stage race (see Greg's detailed report). Put it on your calendar for next year - great race and nice location. A technical, rolling prologue, a long hilly road race, and a downtown crit, and the town has plenty to do for family whom you "drag" along and places to eat and drink post-race. If you read Greg's report, you know I had a bit of a senior moment - it's a course I couldn't wait for, steep and relatively long (by Midwest standards) hills. Although we pre-rode the course in the car earlier that day, when it came to riding the course, I can only blame my mishap on a "senior moment." We crested one of the climbs and came to an intersection - rather than following the course and heading straight, I somehow thought we had to go right and as I began to head that way I see Dale coming up on my right heading the correct direction. So naturally I run into Dale, somehow manage to jump off my bike mid-crash and land standing up, but my bike hits the deck and the front derailleur shifter is no longer working (I snapped the shifting blade off) and my rear derailleur is bent in, leaving me with just the small chain ring and about 5 working cogs. I try to stay with the group, but imagine trying to keep up with the group on a 50 mph descent and the fast flats that followed while in the small chain ring and pedaling about 300 rpm! So I head back to the car and cheer for the boys from the sidelines. It was still a fun race weekend, and well worth seeing Greg doing his Scottish Erkel imitation (see the picture of his imitation)!

E Knuth

So I built a new bike...

A Project One Madone 6.9 SSL with pearl carbon paint. The pics don't do it justice. (And that's my kitty Widdles helping out.)

When we aren't at races or on the bike...

...We are spending time in the back yard, resting the legs in the hammock! I can tell summer is going to go by too quickly and so far in Wisconsin, we haven't had much of a summer to speak of. *sigh*

A few of us from the team rode the Trek 100 yesterday and despite the clouds and chilly temperatures, it was a very enjoyable and the first time I rode the event since it had moved from Pewaukee to the Trek Headquarters in Waterloo. Great routes with low traffic and of course great food options at the rest stops and back at Trek after the ride. I'll definitely be doing it again next year! Thanks to all the volunteers and people who put their time and energy in making it all come together!

Shelley Smith

TOG

If you've been craving a hard, hilly road race then add the Tour of Galena (TOG) to your calendar for next year.
Eric, Dale and I went down to Galena, IL for some fine weinerschnitzel and beer, and we did a bike race while we were there too.
Our road race was about 63 miles, with 4,500' of climbing.
(each lap was about 22 miles, and we did 3 laps; different categories did different numbers of laps, from 1 to 4)
Since we were in the "pants-waist above the navel" age category, we had a small, but strong field of 12. There were a bunch of strong "independents", 3 from an IL team, and us 3 beer-seekers. Eric had an unfortunate navigational incident on the 1st lap and broke his front shifter. Very nicely everyone waited while he picked up his bike and the three of us made our way back to the pack. But Eric's shifter was done, and he had to pull out unfortunately. This was a course tailor made for his strength to weight ratio! I had been planning to work for Eric and Dale, and to try and give them whatever I could, given that I am on the "clydesdale" side of "little Spanish climber." But with Eric gone the weight fell to just Dale and me.
Dale was super strong on the climbs, and I was able to chase back on after getting dropped on many of the 15% climbs on each lap. I was mostly trying to conserve my energy for the next inevitable chase back on...
On the 2nd lap the strong XXX guy got away. And then on the 3rd lap one of the IL guys bridged up to him. That let the other 2 IL guys sit on, naturally. Eventually there were 2 of the 3 IL guys up there, the XXX guy, and a strong independent. The 3rd IL guy was in no man's land between the break of 4 and Dale and me. Dale had rested for 2 seconds when the split happened, and I was...probably just doing my "chase back on" thing at that time. It was frustrating for Dale to miss that break, but Dale and I worked well together and ended up towing the 3rd IL guy towards the break once he sat up and joined us. The independent guy fell out of the break when he must have dropped his chain switching from the big to small ring on one of the many climbs, and joined us in the chase. Dale was doing a ton of work, as usual, at one point and I attacked, forcing the independent to close; and getting Dale off the front. I quickly tried to catch my breath before the next 15% climb after the Galena Cellars winery, and we ended up dropping the 3rd IL guy. The three of us tried to close to the break, but they were gone. And the independent guy climbed better than me again; and unfortunately Dale was suffering like I usually do on the last climb before the descent into town. Dale and I worked well together again to try to chase down the independent in the closing miles, but we did not quite make it. I took off after him with 1km to go after a monster pull from Dale, and only succeeded in attacking and passing a minivan as we entered town, then sprinting against one of "the kids" that I caught on the last corner of the technical finish into downtown Galena. So Dale and I got 5th and 6th. Not great, but not bad against the quality of the field and toughness of the course. It was just a bummer that Eric was not there, because I'm sure he would have been in that break too. And then I could have just sat on - some more!
To finish the day off right Dale bought us dinner and a couple fine beers at Fritz and Frites...

You Can't Have Enough Treble

I realize this posting is a bit dated, but what the heck.  I work in Whitefish Bay near Bayshore Mall.  I am smack dab in the middle of North Shore Nancy Land, a mysterious place where women drive shiny new cars, wear designer clothes, sport impeccable coiffures for even the mundane tasks of the day-to-day, and color their hair in that peculiar version of metallic blonde designed chiefly it seems as an all out assault against the existential anomie that visible gray hair might cause.  

On a bright summer sunshiny day a couple of weeks back, I decide to hop on the bike and head over to my bank which is located at said mall.  After I leave the bank, I sit at a red light waiting to turn left out of said mall when I hear something something approaching, music I think but different somehow.  Finally a shiny new car pulls up next to me:  the windows are down and a version of said North Shore Nancy occupies the driver's seat.  She is alone and wearing sunglasses typical of her cohort, that of the large-framed variety, the kind that give one a bug-like appearance; and her strange proto-metallic-flax-shimmering hair is bouncing and blowing in the light breeze as she bobs her head to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFKU8PgtMHA&feature=related

But this isn't just any version of Donna Summers' semi-subversive, futuristic sounding (oddly, even today) disco classic because my North Shore Nancy has the treble cranked up to 11, possibly 12.  As the tinny sound enveloped me I thought to myself, "life on a bike is always interesting."

Patrick Callahan

Bike to Work Week = Bacon Rewards

Whole Foods , Planet Bike and Willy St. Bikes were out in full force helping out the Madison commuters this morning on my route. The vibe was a great way to start the day. Chocolate chip cookie from Whole foods and Mr. Lalonde at the Planet Bike station was grilling up Nueske's Bacon. I met Becky, who showed me anything wrapped in bacon is better - I had my bacon wrapped around a chocolate frosted doughnut with sprinkles = delicious! My father would be proud.

A few Madison B-cycle stations were also newly installed on my route as well. An awesome and welcome addition to the neighborhood.

d.blomme

Quote from the Pack

Best quote heard in the pack from last night's practice crit:
"long socks are like push-up bras for your calves"

Last night's practice crit was a much needed good time on the bike. Earlier in the day, I got dropped 40 minutes into Trek's daily lunch ride, but for some reason I had no problem hang'n in the faster "A Race" at night - odd.

Tuesday I had my first night ride this summer which included just missing a deer, and the constant showering of bugs on the body. We're pretty lucky here in Madison that we can easily do a 20-30+ mile bike ride at night virtually car free on our path system. Very awesome.
d.blomme

Flypaper

Patrick Callahan

In an effort to stay out of the the Kamphuis tan competition, I sprayed on sweat-proof sunscreen for this morning's ride.  I saw a huge number of riders commuting for Milwaukee's Bike-to-Work week (very cool) and enjoyed some Alterra coffee courtesy of Crank Daddy's bike shop at the Alterra Foundry location (even cooler).  I also noticed that the sweat-proof sunscreen developed adhesive-like properties that enabled me to capture gnats on my legs as I rode along Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River, which, I surmise, raised the SPF significantly.  Perhaps Coppertone Sport can add something about this unheralded effect to their marketing message - sweat proof, water proof, insectophilic.

The Winds of Spring or the Spring of Winds?

Jim Merrifield

Sounds kinda like the starting point for a discussion on global warming - are the seemingly stronger winds a sign that the climate is changing or is it that the winds were the same as any other year but because they so often appeared on race day, did they seem stronger? Or perhaps it is that my strength and fitness has been just that much worse and THAT made the winds seem stronger. Whatever. One thing is for sure - it has seemed a lot windier on race day than it has been since I started racing in WI. And being of a "certain age", it has taken me perhaps a little longer to wrap my head around racing with the high winds. Now sure, I have raced in the winds before. And if it was just me, I would be hiding my tired self from the wind at every point on the course. But when Greg goes off the front on the first or second lap, my head says "gotta get to the from to help" and that means getting out from behind that wide body I was so happy to sit behind and push to the front. Last year I could do that but this year (at least so far), I SUCK. And if you are wondering where have those blogs been, it's been a little hard to come up with a topic other than "sucked today". Recall that I tried a different strategy this year to get myself ready for the season - work on strength in the winter and then bring fitness along in the spring I hopes of being stronger in June and July. This has worked in the past when I was younger (or is this another case of "the older I get, the better I was"?) but not this year. Next winter, I will go back to things that made spring more fun! Trying to be effective in a field where riders may be 29 years younger has been a real challenge. And HOW I get fit in the spring has changed. Earlier this season, I was doing intervals of some sort on Tuesday, recovering on Wednesday. Thursday was an endurance day with Friday being devoted to a short loosen-up ride. Briefly said, this was not working. I was not race ready. And admittedly, I was not doing myself any favors by working on the garden as much as I was. THAT was made very clear when I tried to rototill the yard AFTER a race and I could just barely do it. Small wonder I felt like crap when I raced after a rototilling workout. Who knew?!? Don't get old is the moral to that story. Anyway all these factors contributed to a depressing spring. At the second GDVC race in Madison early in the season, it was a windy day (and I define "windy" as wind over 25 mph) and Greg went off the front very early - and stayed away, but that is his story - and I said "time to get to work" and started working my way up. In retrospect, I should have waited till the pack was NOT chasing but while beauty may be skin deep, stupidity goes right to the bone. Got up towards the front after a few laps and was thinking "I had better sit in a lap" when someone on LAPT decided to try to join the break and the pack said "me too". My legs said "lets drift to the back". Could not accelerate. And perhaps I should have "just" gotten out of the saddle and did what I needed to do but I was quickly 6 feet off the back of the pack and in THE WIND. I tried vainly to get back and chased for a lap, hoping for a slackening of the pace. Spent another lap drawing analogies between myself and various body parts and then road straight to the car and drove home, not even bothering to take off my cycling shoes. Yep, left the pit wheels. That was not THE low point but it was certainly A low point. Blah!

Things are looking up, though. I have been putting off yard work before races and I have rearranged my workouts with good results. I have found that doing my endurance workout Wednesday after the Tuesday night crits and then resting Thursday has had me feeling reasonably good on Saturday. I seem to be getting my fitness together. And I have been really making it a point to race smarter, especially in the wind, to choose my spots. Simple things like shifting to the leeward side of a rider as we go around a corner and following wheels a little more closely can sure make a difference. Anyway, spring, such as it was (cold, windy and not terribly pleasant) is over and summer has reared its heat. More on that soon.